I share the same sentiments with everyone who have expressed this longing for soccer (football). It's not fair at all how football had to be sacrificed in order for cricket to flourish. I have already discussed a lot of it on the official football thread here. Hope to dig into it a bit more in the coming podcast.

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Originally Posted by mufi_02
of course we are. Bengal as a region has always been very football oriented. We embraced cricket much much later compared to other regions in the subcontinent.

It's a shame we don't take football seriously now. If countries like Panama, Saudi, Peru etc. can make it, why can't we at least get close?

If I were BFF president, I would select 100 or so little kids and send them to top youth academies across Europe and Latin America. We can get those big clubs to do some scouting and sponsor 4-5 kids in their academies. Heck even send them to some ghetto neighborhoods in Brazil.

I get goosebumps watching our cricket team in WC. Imagine in football WC! The feeling will be infinite times better.

If I had to choose between winning cricket WC or getting into football WC, I would choose the latter.

Hahaha alhamdulillah i suggested this idea at the get together only if it is implemented. Definitely doable. Only problem is to see the results we need to wait 15-20 years can we wait that long? If we can wait 20 years for cricket i think so...

Originally Posted by roman
India with so much money and talent is trying very hard and still cant even come close to teams like Japan, Iran or South Korea. LOL. And we on the other hand cant even beat Bhutan now. Back in the days teams like Bhutan, Maldives , Sri Lanka were walk in the park for us. We were very competitive against China, Japan, Thailand.

Munna was the best defender in South Asia and one of the best in Asia. Kaiser Hamid was also very good defender. Shabbir was our Maradona, Salam and Aslam were great striker. I was fortunate enough to see them play. And have read that The magician Samad once challenged the referee about the height of the goal post as 2 of his shots hit the bar. Good old days.

I do not mind rising of cricket. But I do mind how we have forgotten about football. Like everything else in Bangladesh, we destroy anything that is capable of bringing good results. Be it Jute industry, chess or football.

India (with the exception of Northeast region) did not have a big football culture. Cricket and Hockey was ingrained in their psyche and that's why both Ind/Pak dominated hockey and now cricket. While football only remained in obsession in certain regions.

Cricket is so dominant that there has been at least a dozen British Asians of Ind/Pak descent playing for England team. But maybe 1-2 players at best playing in 20 teams across the entire EPL. Interestingly, there is a Bangladeshi descent player in Leicester City now.

But we had a strong football culture and failed to capitalize on it. Money/Investment doesn't is important but doesn't guarantee sustained top level performance (USA/China/India).

We completely gave up on football. Nowadays the obsession is only around WC and the upper middle class "cool" kids following EPL/La Liga and fighting on social media about Barca/Real/Man U/Bayern etc.